Perfumistas become different. Some gradually cultivate their olfactory abilities. Others start with a simple collection of perfumes, choosing from them over time the ones that most closely express their "I". The third, on the contrary, initially like one single fragrance, such as Chanel No 5 or Dior J'Ador, but then they arrange it in perfume chords and add different versions or flankers. All perfumes have their own way.
However, when people get involved in the complex but exciting world of perfumery, they go through several stages in their development as a perfumer.
Everything starts with interest. At the first stage, the fragrance collection has just a few bottles and some recent releases, such as the original L'Eau d'Issey perfume and its flankers, including the 2015 edition of L'Eau d'Issey City Blossom. This phase of perfumery development can last for many years. It is possible that a person who is fond of fragrances tastes everything that passes through specialized shops and even knows the compositions of some of the classics - Jean Patou or Guerlain Samsara. He sniffs all the bottles on the dresser when he comes to visit and compliments his colleagues on the choice of flavor. Probably, the future perfumer knows a little more about perfume than most people and hopes to find his "key" fragrance one day.
In the second stage, perfume mania begins. It's like a sudden push or click of a switch. Perhaps it happened after a trip to France, where you visited the Perfumery Museum, or perhaps while searching the SpellSmell website for the best price for a Lanvin Arpege for your mother-in-law. The interest in perfumes is getting deeper and deeper and you will never allow yourself to be humiliated by the perfume.
Now you start exploring the Caron brand collections or focus instead, for example, on Annick Goutal or L'Artisan Parfumeur perfumes. One day you try Mitsouko and realize that you don't like it at all. You have heard or read a lot about the Serge Lutens line and know that some of its samples are not exported. Also, you clearly understand the difference between chypre, flute and other flavor groups.
At this stage, as a rule, attempts at self-determination through perfume begin, but this is more of an intellectual exercise based on desire than reality. For example, you believe that the vet has a complex, sophisticated and at the same time slightly rough smell, so it conveys your character. And your own perfume collection is rapidly replenished with perfumes, in whose compositions there is a note of vetiver. By the way, the latter can be replaced with skin, tuberose, oakmoss, musk, etc. if necessary.
The third stage in the formation of perfumery can be called full-scale perfumery. Now you can easily list the perfumes of Serge Lutens, which were not created by Christopher Sheldrake. You've already read the old blog and handbook by Luca Turin, a famous perfume critic, and you're also periodically (or constantly) exchanging samples (perfume samples) to satisfy your perfume passion. And yet, you've given up the idea of finding your "key" fragrance.
This is a very dangerous stage for your wallet because you start ordering miniatures or even whole bottles of perfume that have never smelled! For several years, the collection has been accumulating exhibits that seemed so inexpensive to buy. You go to the perfume website, see Balmain Vent Vert for just 1000 rubles and put it in the basket. Next, you find the perfume Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche and realize that it is a classic, which must be in your collection, and put it back in the basket. And in the end, the amount spent on them is very palpable.
But on the other hand, the perfumer now distinguishes between five roses and patchouli and understands how they sound together and separately. He knows very well if iris is right for him, and he likes the smell of leather - saddle or gloves - better.
At the fourth stage of perfumery development, he can already be called a connoisseur of perfumery. He starts cleaning his collection, leaving only the perfume that speaks of him. The perfumer will exchange Maitre Parfumeur et Gantier Route du Vetiver, despite the very beautiful and heavy bottle, which attracted him when he bought it because he knows that this amount of vetiver is too high for him. Or because admiring something and living with it is not the same thing.
You like to study new perfume, but you are not shaken by the desire to have another novelty of Parfumerie Generale as soon as it appears. It will happen when the time comes. You like to read the opinions of perfume critics, but in the end, you trust only your own judgment. You don't have a characteristic scent, just because you don't wear the same perfume every day. But, as with clothes, you have a perfume wardrobe that tells you who you are. However, the most important thing is that the smell (not just perfume) has become a source of joy. The smell of the wind, garden after the rain, wine in a glass, baby, every season and every day. Isn't it beautiful?
You are a perfumer!